Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle

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Vladimir Nabokov

Vintage, New York, 1990; originally published 1969, English

Fiction

ISBN: 9780679725220

Published two weeks after Nabokov's 70th birthday, Ada, or Ardor describes an incestuous love affair. It is also at once a fairy tale, epic, philosophical treatise on the nature of time, parody of the history of the novel, and erotic catalogue. This is the first American edition to include the extensive and ingeniously sardonic appendix by the author, written under the anagrammatic pseudonym Vivian Darkbloom.

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If you’ve forgotten what adolescent passion and desire felt like, then this is a good reminder. The writing is impeccable and the story arc is a tragic reminder of how we lose our youthful passions as we accept the monotony of adult life.

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